Process of producing cyanides



I To all may] concern:

- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

room) VON BIcHowsKY AN JOHN HARTHAN, or GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA.

, rnocrss or raonvcnve GYANIDES.

No Drawingu Be it known that we, Fooim VON BIcHoW- sKY and-JOHN HARTHAN,citizens of'the' United States, and residents of Glendale, county of LosAngeles, State of California,

have-invented anew and useful Process of Producing Cyanides, of whichthefollowing is a specification.

- process of production.

ered, that the .reactiommay be The presentinvention relates in general.

to the production of cyanides' and has reference more particularly to animproved We have discovered that compounds containing only titanium andnitrogen as Well/as the so called titanium cyanonitrides, can be'readilyconverted into inorganic alkali metal salt together. with .a reducingagent. We have further discovwithout the use :of free carbon.

By a suitable alkali metal'salt, we

preferably include such compoundsnas formates,

acetates, 'oxalates or oxides, hydroxides, carbonatesor other salts ofsodium, or1potassium, or if desired mixtures of the'above.

For a reducing agent we. preferably employ iron filings, whichhave'become saturated with ironcarbide. Thegformation of such titaniumoxideand iron, together with sodium carbonate, with methane (naturalgas) and nitrogen.

The mass so obtained after mechanically removing the free carbonlis mostsuitable for our new process as the non present, with the titaniumnitrides, issaturated with dissolved carbon and iron-carbideis-therefore present in an impure form.

The process of the l-present invention is particularly valuable, sincethe titanium is easily recovered from the reaction mass and used overagain. v While the iron, present as such in the mass, 'is freed fromcarbon,-and .its melting point raised, which is of value when reusingthe said iron in a-newl pretitanium nitrides," under which term wepreferably include 15 carried out 7 I takes containing mass and; drysodium Specification of illetters Patent. Patented lIay 30 1922;Application filed October 25, 1920. Serial a... 419,458. y

' pared and unnitrifie d catalytic mass. Also 'by 'avoidingthe use-offree carbon a more uniform reaction results and the fi-nal roduct is:easier to recover in a pureunco ored condition. ;In addition the amountof alkaline metal compound can be reduced to more nearly the theoreticalamount.

"For the purpose ofthis invention, the titanlum n trides and titaniumcyano-nitrides are equlvalentsi J The following will serve to illustratefurther the nature of our invention, which, h0W- ever, is not confinednecessarily to these ex-- amples, and the-method of carrying it intopractical effect. A

As an example:

Meltv together for about thirty minutes at a brigh t red heat two partsof the finely ground titanlum nitride. containing mass and about threeparts of anhydrous sodium car bonatef *The carbon monoxide evolved dur-1n heating=may be collected and burned. W i en the meltiscold, thesodium cyanide contained therein can be recovered -in any convenientmanner. The reaction which place can be represented by the equa-; tion:

{As another example: filings we have describedin two previous,

.a jMelt toge her for. thirty minutes at a tem- "jgiralture oi about.950 C., a mixture of equal parts 'ofthe finely ground titanium nitrideformate. The reaction which takes sented by the equation The cyanide canbe eitherrecove'red'as such 1 or converted into ammonia by treating thereaction mass with steam according to the well known procedure.

Weclaimr J 1. Theproduction of. cyanides of the alkali metals whichconsists in heating titanium nitrides with a carbide of iron in theabsence of .free carbon and in the presence of an alkali metal; salt.

place can be repre- 1 5D r l Which consists in heating a titaniumnitride With a carbide of iron in the presence of a sodium salt.

3. The production of sodium cyanide which consistsin heating a titaniumnitride with a carbide of iron in the presence of at sodium formats;

- eis/flee 4. The hereindescribed process of pi'odncing cyanide whichconsists, heating. a tita-' nium compound with ah alkelimetal salt to-'gether With a reducing agent in the absence of free carbon. 1

q FQURD- VON BICHOWSKY.

. JQHN HARTHAN.

